DEHRADUN, Feb 13:The Special Task Force (STF) of Uttarakhand police have busted two inter-state cyber-crime gangs and arrested five members from Arunachal Pradesh and Orissa on charges of cyber frauds amounting to over Rs 2.20 crore.

Two residents of Cuttack, identified as Somnath Sahu and Anil Kumar Behra, were nabbed by STF for duping a Pauri resident, Mahesh Kumar (name changed), of Rs 86 lakh of his retirement money in an online lottery fraud.

“They called the victim, who is a senior citizen, and told him that he has won Rs 64 crore online lottery and extracted almost Rs 86lakh from him within a span of seven years in lieu of getting the lottery money,” said Ashok Kumar, ADG law and order.

Police said, the accused opened about 50 bank accounts in Orissa for depositing money they took from the victims. Police would also investigate the role of bank officials in the whole scam as well.

The names of two more gang members, identified as Dhiraj Rao, resident of Bihar, and Swapnjeet, resident of Puri in Orissa, have emerged in the investigation. “Swapnjeet is currently lodged in jail in Chhattisgarh in connection with an ATM fraud,” police said.

STF arrested three more persons from Arunachal Pradesh — Vikram Singha, GK Bhagra and Nani Tabin on charge of duping two more senior citizens from Dehradun. “They lost almost Rs 1.35 crore of their savings and retirement money in a cyber-fraud,” said Ridhim Agarwal, SSP of STF.

The accused gang members called Dehradun resident Sandeep Kumar (name changed) in August last year and offered him an international credit card. “They asked the victim to deposit a certain amount to increase the credit limit of the card and he fell into their trap. He deposited Rs 38lakh in 12 different bank accounts on the pretext of assured Rs 1 crore credit limit. However, he never got the promised credit card,” said Ridhim Agarwal.

In another major cyber fraud of Rs 97 lakh, the Arunachal-based gang duped a Doon resident on pretext of providing him high yield seeds for setting up agriculture business. According to SSP STF, “The complainant was told that he would be provided international quality high yield seeds which are not easily available and asked to pay huge amounts in separate installments.”

Meanwhile, the DGP Anil Raturi has announced a reward of Rs 20,000 for the STF teams that busted the gangs.

--

Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313